Abstract

BECERRA PEREZ, Luis Armando  and  RAMOS ALVAREZ, Roberto Alonso. ASSESSMENT OF HEALTH IMPACTS BY PM_2.5 PARTICLES IN SINALOA, MEXICO. Rev. Int. Contam. Ambient [online]. 2020, vol.36, n.2, pp.249-259.  Epub May 04, 2021. ISSN 0188-4999.  https://doi.org/10.20937/rica.53463.

There is a growing global interest in the evaluation of health effects generated by environmental pollution and its economic quantification. This article analyzes the health impacts caused by PM2.5 air pollution in the main cities of the state of Sinaloa, Mexico: Culiacán (capital), Mazatlán and Los Mochis, Ahome; it also estimates avoidable deaths if the concentration of contaminants was reduced to the levels recommended by the World Health Organization and the corresponding Official Mexican Standard, and monetizes the economic costs through the loss of productivity of associated deaths to PM2.5. It was found that avoidable total deaths would be 354 and 261 using the international and Mexican norms, respectively. The calculated economic cost of exceeding the permissible limits of PM2.5 in the main cities of Sinaloa was in the range of 24 to 34 million dollars for 2017. It is recommended to design local environmental policies that promote the reduction of PM2.5 levels, for which it is necessary to identify emissions by source type with the objective of implementing specific actions that, from a local perspective, contribute to the national goal of mitigating the negative impacts of air pollution.

Keywords : environmental pollution; avoidable deaths; loss of productivity; environmental policies.